1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to placing summary frames in a video and, more particularly, to a system for placing summary frames into a currently playing video depicting either past or future scenes so that a viewer can get a quick overview of the video.
2. Description of the Related Art
Television viewers are stymied at the number of viewing choices available these days. Cable television systems typically offer one-hundred or more channels to viewer subscribers. Digital satellite systems make available hundreds of channels for viewing choices. Video signaling over, for example, the Internet, allows interactive viewing and the downloading of video from virtually millions of sites. For better or worse, all of these video and entertainment choices have made couch potatoes, more kindly referred to as "channel surfers", out of many of us.
In a typical channel surfing scenario, a surfer, armed with an infrared remote control, sits or lies across the room, carefully aims, and begins repeatedly pressing the "channel-up" or "channel-down" button in the general direction of the television set. A good surfer is oblivious to other viewers in the room and the other viewers are usually powerless to stop an experienced surfer. A surfer will typically not spend more than two or three seconds on any one channel unless there is something on the screen at that precise moment which is of interest. Channels with commercials currently airing and most movies deemed to be well in progress are surfed over almost instantly with very little pause. Similarly, the two or three seconds that a good surfer typically gives a channel before surfing to the next may be insufficient time to accurately determine the true merit of the programing on the channel.
Based on the above scenario, there is a real need in the art for a system to more accurately inform channel surfers or other video viewers of the contents of the current programming on a particular channel and to offer a quick overview of the video program to get the viewer quickly "up to speed" on programs already in progress.